Adam Burish: ‘I want to bring some excitement. I want to pull some other guys along’

Adam Burish, who received a four-year, $7.2 million deal Sunday, is a talker — and, big surprise, we in the media do appreciate quote machines.

“As you guys can probably figure out already, I’m not soft-spoken, I’m not quiet,” he said today. “You’ll know how I’m feeling.”

An updated story for online and print edition that gets into some of that should have shown up in the right-hand column by now.

Beyond that, though, I’m thinking he’s going to be a regular presence here where the limitations of print space do not apply. And to get things rolling, here’s some material that didn’t make the cut:

*****On what he can do to help the Sharks finally reach the Stanley Cup finals:

“To me, I want to bring some excitement, I want to pull some guys along,” he said, mentioning former teammate Marty Havlat among them. “I don’t know what’s missing, but if I were on the Sharks and I had to listen to everybody rag on Joe Thornton in the playoffs, that would piss me off because he’s one of the best players in the league. He’s so hard to play against.

“Hopefully I can get in there and give him a little excitement, too, and let him know from an outsider coming in, you are one of the best players in the league and forget all those writers and media people who are bothering you. I’m going to help you win the Stanley Cup because you deserve it. That’s kind of the attitude I want to bring in to those plaers who have been there a long time and won everything but a Stanley cup.”

On his role on the ice:

“In Dallas, I’d check against the other team’s top line for two months, then I’d play with some skill players for a month, then I’d play on a shutdown wing for three months.

“I kind of played everywhere. For me, I enjoyed that, I enjoyed putting a different hat on every night. It’s like playing a game within a game where you’ve got to figure out what you need to do tonight.

After playing with Chicago, “now I’m going to go out and battle Jonathan Toews and I want to shut him down. And I want to shut down Patrick Kane or whoever those guys are. Or I’m going to make some space for Marty Havlat or Joe Pavelski and let those guys do their magic. I enjoy that and that was kind of the conversation we had this morning.

“Killing penalties – if that means diving face first in front of a puck, you’re darn right I’m going to do it. I’m going to give it everything I’ve got and that’s what I want to bring. I’ve kind of made a career out of doing that. It’s not always pretty, it’s not always fancy but I’m going to find a way to get it done.

“And you’re not going to outwork me. I don’t care if you’re Sidney Crosby or who you are – you’re not going to outwork me.”

*****On his priority of getting on a Stanley Cup contender:

“Going into this day, the most important thing for me wasn’t location, it wasn’t money. It was just a team that has a chance to win the Stanley Cup. After being in Chicago and then being with a team the last two years where we missed the playoffs, it was really a letdown to me.

“When Todd and I talked earlier this morning, we talked bout suffering through the playoffs, how hard it is. I miss that suffering, miss that kind of pain, playing tired and playing hurt. As crazy as it sounds, I miss that. And I want a chance to figure out how to win a Stanley Cup again. To me San Jose is a team that should be competing every year for a Stanley Cup and that’s why I chose San Jose.”

And, yes, he said he did get calls from other teams.

*****We also talked with Joe Pavelski about Burish, who, unfortunately, was on the conference call at the time. Oh well.

“He’s going to be one of the leaders on the PK,” Pavelski predicted. “That competitive edge, he’s not going to let anyone take a night off. That’s the biggest thing. You have to work every day, every night to get better and he brings that attitude.

“He’s competitive. He’s going to go get the puck first and if he loses it, he wants it back.”

I asked Pavelski if there was one defining moment from their college days at Wisconsin that has stuck with him. First Pavelski mentioned the willingness to dive head first to block a shot, then he got more specific about Burish, who was captain when the Badgers won the NCAA title in 2006.

“After my freshman year, we got knocked out by Michigan and we weren’t happy with how we played. We pretty much ended up calling each other out,” Pavelski said. “It was making that pact we were going to be a lot better. We were going to compete, we weren’t going to back down and we were going to win next year. That was the bottom line.”

*****Wilson stressed that both Burish and newly signed Brad Stuart both play the more in-your-face style that the Sharks are trying to re-establish as their team identity.

And he said the four-year term was pretty muc the going rate and not any kind of a sticking point.

“That’s what was in the marketplace. He was talking to four or five other teams,” Wilson said. “He’s a fitness guy, in his 20s. We think that fits very well. It’s fair.

“Term was something that works well in our range. He identified that he wanted to be on this hockey team. I think the offers he was getting – both in term and dollars — were what ours were and more in several cases. But it came down to he wanted to be on this hockey team and we wanted him.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

JasonB@149
Know you are kidding but fact of the matter is tho 20 player minimum is stated, most teams carry the maximum ie. 23.

FireDougWilson

Sorry but I don’t believe those Nash rumors at all. Pavelski will not be traded end of story.

JasonB

@Slappy 151

Ya, but it’s more than enough for 3 mitchells!

also /jk

slappy

FDW@154
What are your reasons?
I disagree with you because our GM – now more than ever because both LA and Anaheim have won the Cup – is under the gun to get to the SCF – at minimum – asap. Desperate people do desperate things. Nash is viewed as the magic ticket imo.

AJ

If I had a nickel for every time I read the “Sharks add grit”, I’d enough coin for lifetime season tickets… against the glass.

FireDougWilson

154 Slappy,

Because Wilson won’t trade Pavelski, Couture or Stalock, that’s why.

slappy

FDW@158
Rumors now and @ the TDL suggested that Pavs was offered instead of Couture but CBJ did not bite. If Parise and Semin sign with WC teams, I think Couture will go pretty fast from “off the table”into play for Nash. But who knows? Maybe DW will stick with what he has because he is confident they can win the Cup
.
.
.
.
NOT.

slappy

AJ@157

hehehe You are right-grit does sound familiar-Scotty Nichol, Jamal Mayers,Shelley, Winchester to name a few.

Sandpaper is another popular Sharks acquisition related word.

4 years@$1.8M per is a brand new qualifier tho.

hondr

Beer League Rocks says:

hondr,
do me a favor please, since we can’t block you from commenting. Keep your damn Nazi comments off our blog. It’s in very bad taste. You can keep up with your whack a mole, but please find another word to use besides Nazi. Better yet, find somewhere else to post your crap, nobody here cares what you have to say.
Or maybe find a little class and be more like “no limits” who is a welcome visitor unlike you.
Have you moved out of mom’s basement yet?

.

Well, evidently you must care about what I have to say, son, since you’re feverishly reading it and responding to it in detail.

You see, that’s sorta how it works, here and anywhere else. If you claim not to care what somebody says, there’s only one way to back up your fraudulent claim… and that is to actually NOT care about it, and stop reading it, and stop going into cardio malfarcation over it.

Sorta like I ignore everything you post, because it’s basically non value added. The only reason I even noticed your post is that my nickname was at the top of it. Otherwise, you’re a pure skipper, as you know about nothing about hockey. That’s how you blow through comments sections. You ignore the posts from those non value added, like yours always are.

Now I’d suggest as a matter of decorum that you quit whining about other posters. In fact, I’d suggest that as a good touchstone for others on this site. Because I assure you that your whining isn’t going to change the character of mine or anybody else’s posts, if they have a principled position on affairs. That’s sorta how it works in life. Get used to it. Your whining ain’t gonna do much for anybody, including you. Ignore who you don’t like. That’s the best course. Stop whining.

hondr

Because Wilson won’t trade Pavelski, Couture or Stalock, that’s why.

.

Likely so, and in whack-a-mole Wlson’s mind, Slow Joe and Burns and Boyle are also likely untouchable, even though Thornton and one of the redundant Burns/Boyle pair are the obvious choices to be moved, to dump salary, gain cap space and acquire prospects and picks, these having been recently thrown away.

The Sharkys are trapped, and it’s a trap of whack-a-mole’s own making. It’s all about him now, and not championship hockey. If he precludes his own flexibility, don’t be surprised if he remains in his self-imposed trap.

BASS

Bring Back Ville Nieminen!

Seriously though, we’ve tried the recruit-a-pest in the past, with no success. If Wilson really wanted a pest, he should have gone after Ott. I’m sure Thornton would love being roomies with the Otter.

WI JP

No arguing that Nash would have beter stats if he had played with a good team. And, I sure don’t want to start another week long discussion of the +/- stat. Nevertheless, a career -71 is not impressive to me. What do we make of a player who scores 41 goals and in the same season is -35?

Of course, when it comes to keeping Pavs, my view is slanted, and I’d much prefer to be a Sharks fan than a BJ fan.

Have a nice day. JP

Wonderogre

Slappy #140 – Realist my butt 😉 I don’t really buy that, and here’s why. Given that all of our big names are signed and we aren’t likely to add anymore significant ones without some trade happening, I don’t think $6.6m is that restrictive a figure to sign 4 additional players to fill out the roster, especially given that those are the players who are unlikely to see much ice time during the season. And as Jason B already beat me to mentioning, if we really want to move an asset to free up cap space, it makes far more sense to move Niemi, whose performance is overwhelmingly average and who plays a position that tends to have the least difference between ‘great’ and ‘average’ players. Boyle has talent you just don’t find very easily, even if he is getting older, outside of the season he mainly missed due to injury and this last season when he played the first quarter of the season with a broken foot (which I still don’t understand the need for), he hasn’t failed to score 50 points in the NHL since 2003 (and this season I think it’s reasonable to assume he’d have notched at least the extra 2 points he needed for that milestone if he’d been skating on a healthy foot for those extra 20 games during which his performance was noticeably impacted). Big caphit and all, that’s an incredibly impressive number for a guy who is in his mid-30s – and that’s without all the intangibles.

The way I see it, if we want to clear up cap space or move assets, you have two big ones you need to look at before you glance Boyle’s direction:

Marleau (whose performance is going to take an even bigger hit once he loses another half a step, seeing as how his game is entirely built around his straight line speed)
Niemi

No to mention, I think those two are going to be slightly more tradeable commodities than a 36 (in a week and a half) year old defenseman with a $6.6m hit.

Wonderogre

Hondr posting, “Sorta like I ignore everything you post,” in the middle of a 4-paragraph response to something that wasn’t even hockey related, hilarious.

Detroit sure sounds like it has a lot going for it this time of year. 🙂

Wonderogre

Oh, and Slappy – Forgot to mention: This won’t affect us this year, but it’ll be interesting to see how much they extend Vlasic (who’s otherwise a UFA next year) for, and what that does to our roster next season.

Wonderogre

WI JP – I am always highly skeptical of the “he’d have better stats with a better team argument.” It makes sense superficially, but then you consider that when highly touted guys like Nash play on teams as bad as CBJ, they’re usually allowed to run loose offensively without worrying too much about the defense. And IMO a lot of the time that ends up boosting their numbers to about the level you’d expect if they played on a good team – where they would be expected to actually back-check, be responsible defensively, etc…

Look at Kovalchuk: The Devils (and most analysts/casual fans) thought his productivity would get even better if he was surrounded by good linemates – but that hasn’t happened yet, because on the Devils he’s not allowed to just run amok and cherry-pick and cheat like everyone was happy to let him do on the Thrashers.

I’m sure it’s possible that Nash scores 50 goals playing with Thornton, but I don’t think the risk is worth not only the price Howson is demanding (and he’s a fool for it) but also the contract that he managed to sign Nash to (which he was also a fool for).

San Jose!!!

Report: San Jose Sharks have offer in for Rick Nash!!!
OMG!! who did we trade to get him??

San Jose!!!

I read: A report out of Columbu say’s the Sharks have an offer on the bable for Nash!!! Also read it from Kevin Kurz!

San Jose!!!

Table for Nash…Oops sorry

Wonderogre

Table for Nash? Well why not? How about a whole dining room set?

renoshark

SJ,

I’d be shocked if Pavs or Couture aren’t a part of any Rick Nash deal. DW said no on moving Couture once before. Has that changed? We’ll see.

Wonderogre

Seriously, though, Kurz is referencing a day-old report from a CBJ paper. The Sharks have had an offer for Nash on the table since Sunday. So have a bunch of other teams. Doesn’t mean anything.

renoshark

“Seriously, though, Kurz is referencing a day-old report from a CBJ paper. The Sharks have had an offer for Nash on the table since Sunday. So have a bunch of other teams. Doesn’t mean anything.”

Wonderogre,

Yeah, but we’ve also thrown a table into the mix. As some point, Nash will need a table. 😉

San Jose!!!

LOL @ Wonderogre

Table for Nash? Well why not? How about a whole dining room set?

Peninsula Shark

Am I stating the obvious here that no matter who is involved in the deal (assuming it’s going to be one of either Pavelski or Couture as the headliner), most are going to condemn Nash in the ice rink of public opinion before he even gets to training camp?

I’m pretty much Switzerland on the whole Nash or no Nash situation. I’d hate to lose Pavs, but it’s pretty clear to me if the current DW/TM regime is back to compensate the Sharks need to be shaken up again or 2012-13 will be guaranteed of more of the same with the team probably being just good enough to sneak into the playoffs but not much more. Whether or not Nash would thrive on a line with JT and take his game to the next level when he’s no longer burdened with being the only star of a poorly-run franchise in Columbus will be the big ?.

But if the trade does come to fruition, the WTC message forum will become a nasty place with poor Rick Nash then donning the black hat gladly handed over to him by Patrick Marleau.

sharksfan

Nash is overrated. He’s not the answer to the Sharks current woes.
If possible, Marleau, Boyle and Slow Joe need to be shipped out for younger guys, picks, and prospects. It’s time to rebuild. DW has traded the farm system away and its time to trade for some younger talent back.

The team of the future are the Edmonton Oilers, they are absolutely loaded with young talent and could be very good for a very long time. I think the Sharks would do well to draft smartly (and get lucky) and develop their guys.

I just hope the Sharks don’t become this bubble team every year (look up the Calgary flames); fighting to make the playoffs but never good enough to win the whole thing.

Wonderogre

I’m not (and I don’t think many who oppose the trade will) going to judge him before the season starts – and even then, he’ll likely need time to adjust to the system, and having to backcheck 😉 But I’d definitely be pessimistic about the trade if it involved Pavs or Couture.

ZEKE

As much emphasis as TMc places on his forwards and their defensive responsibilities, you’d think Nash would be a guy they’d be less than enthusiastic about.

DW has let some offensive pieces go like McGinn, Wellwood and Seto — in each case replaced by more defensive oriented sorts.

rd

speaking of grit, the Dallas Stars had both Ott and Burish the past 2 years and could not even make the playoffs. says plenty.

DumbPuck™

rd –

The Kings had way more grit than the Sharks, and they won the Cup. Last year the Bruins had far more grit than the Sharks and THEY won the Cup.

Sharkattax

Mike Moore to Nashville $550 K 1 year…….another DW Woosta d-man not quite good enough to crack our top 8 over the likes of Vandermeer and C. White…..yawn

rd

you interpreted my post wrong. I like grit, but I am saying that Burish and Ott had little effect for Dallas.

in the season before Burish got to Dallas, the Stars had 88 pts and missed the playoffs. last season they had 89 pts. and missed the playoffs.

so, what I am saying is that for all the bluster and bs coming from Burish, “I want to pull guys along etc etc””, he did none of that for Dallas.

renoshark

rd,

Your post makes no sense. Burish and Ott are the only guys on the ice at the same time? They make up the whole roster? Their teammates, coaching, personnel moves and injuries had no bearing either? We have way too many guys who lack intestinal fortitude and don’t mind laying down when the going gets stuff. Changing that culture and mindset should be a huge priority. I’m surprised many on this site are ok with status quo.

Sharkattax

The Sharks re-signed John McCarthy to a two-year deal worth $1.225 million.The first year of the deal is of the two-way variety, while the second is one-way. McCarthy played in 65 games in the AHL, talling 20 goals and 47 points. He was pointless in 10 contests with the Sharks.

rd

again wrong. I am not satisfied with status quo. but changing the laid back culture of the Sharks is not gonna happen as long as Thornton and marleau continue to wear teal.

Joe T will simply say, “we’ll get ’em next time”

and Marleau will simply say, “at least the fans did not have pitchforks”

slappy

Wonderogre@167
Yeah the Pickles contract extension this off season after coming off of a great previous season, skating most of the time as Boylers partner, is a bit of a worry. Hope DW doesnt go overboard. Pickles is a good defensive Dman, no doubt about it, however Im guessing that his secondary Assist stats ( I havent checked) took a jump this year being on the ice with Boyle. And plumped up stats are agents’ best friends when negotiating new contracts. Vlasic still has a one dimensional defensive game albeit a nice one but if DW gives him Burns $ that would really put our team on the ropes capwise the following year. Even if Clowe is not reupped, someone would need to be signed to play in his top 6 position. Wingels making the big leap is not guaranteed.

slappy

rd@187
lol! exactly! and dont forget what Burish said about Havi:
“To me, I want to bring some excitement, I want to pull some guys along,” he said, mentioning former teammate Marty Havlat among them.”

AB has to pull along a Trioka of Complacency into a State of Excitement. That is no easy feat for one guy who is only 192 lbs.

JB

AJ – “If I had a nickel for every time I read the “Sharks add grit”, I’d enough coin for lifetime season tickets… against the glass.”

I have to say that rings true. The bigger problem last season is that the Sharks look hesitant to use the grit they already have for fear of putting the PK on the ice. Enough grits! I want some Stanley Cup Helper, just add it to the hamburger we already have and let’s start planning the parade route! ;-D